And you thought the Netherlands was just about tulips, windmills and clogs. Don’t you believe it. There are some very strange places to check out indeed.
Visit the mummies of Wiewerd Wiewerd is a tiny hamlet built on terps – raised mounds – in deepest Friesland. The story goes that in 1765, carpenters working in the church found a crypt with 11 coffins containing bodies that had become mummified. They are thought to have been members of an obscure Christian sect called the Labadists who lived nearby. Four bodies and several mummified birds are in the crypt today – the missing bodies are thought to have been stolen by medical students at long gone Franeker university. To visit ring a bell on the church and someone from the village will come and open the door to let you in.
Get weighed to see if you are a witch The village of Oudewater near Utrecht features on most lists of the Netherlands’ prettiest villages but we consider it to be seriously strange. Forget the cobbled streets and canals – if you go to the town’s weigh house, they will find out if you are witch.
Visit 22 bits of Belgium, completely surrounded by the Netherlands Baarle Nassau is a town of some 6,000 people in Noord Brabant which contains rather large chunks of Belgium. In fact there are 22 little bits of Belgium in the locality, the smallest of which is named H22 and measures just 2,632 square metres.
Visit 22 bits of Belgium, completely surrounded by the Netherlands Baarle Nassau is a town of some 6,000 people in Noord Brabant which contains rather large chunks of Belgium. In fact there are 22 little bits of Belgium in the locality, the smallest of which is named H22 and measures just 2,632 square metres.
Go underground in Limburg The St Pietersburg caves in Limburg are not caves at all but mines – the result of 2,000 years of digging for marl – the mud stone used in building and agriculture. The digging, which began with the Romans, led to the creation of a labyrinth of 20,000 tunnels and passageways, many of which are covered in graffiti dating back centuries.The caves are also home to what the local tourist board says is the ‘largest and oldest underground Christmas market in Europe’. We cannot imagine there are any others….
Spend time in a village devoted to prisons In the depths of darkest Drenthe is the prison village of Veenhuizen which was developed in the early 19th century as a place where anti-social families, the jobless and the poor of Amsterdam were sent to be reformed.
Check out human and animal deformities Not for the fainthearted – the Vrolik Museum in the heart of the AMC medical centre in Amsterdam Zuidoost is devoted to pathological specimens – from jars containing club feet or Siamese twins to framed pieces of skin covered in tattoos.
Go as low as you can It is somewhat disconcerting to stand next to a lorry park not far from Rotterdam and imagine that you are nearly seven metres beneath the sea. The Zuidplas polder near Rotterdam is 6.76 below sea level, making it the lowest point in the Netherlands.
Have a drink in Sexbierum Okay, school boy humour we know, but Sexbierum must be one of the wackiest names for a Dutch village – perhaps even beating the charmingly named Muggenbeet (mosquito bite) in Overijssel. Unfortunately, the name of this Frisian village of under 2,000 souls does not derive from various vices but from a combination of the name of the pope Sixtus II and the Old Frisian word for house or barra.
Read more: Nine weird things to do in the Netherlands - DutchNews.nl
Visit the mummies of Wiewerd Wiewerd is a tiny hamlet built on terps – raised mounds – in deepest Friesland. The story goes that in 1765, carpenters working in the church found a crypt with 11 coffins containing bodies that had become mummified. They are thought to have been members of an obscure Christian sect called the Labadists who lived nearby. Four bodies and several mummified birds are in the crypt today – the missing bodies are thought to have been stolen by medical students at long gone Franeker university. To visit ring a bell on the church and someone from the village will come and open the door to let you in.
Get weighed to see if you are a witch The village of Oudewater near Utrecht features on most lists of the Netherlands’ prettiest villages but we consider it to be seriously strange. Forget the cobbled streets and canals – if you go to the town’s weigh house, they will find out if you are witch.
Visit 22 bits of Belgium, completely surrounded by the Netherlands Baarle Nassau is a town of some 6,000 people in Noord Brabant which contains rather large chunks of Belgium. In fact there are 22 little bits of Belgium in the locality, the smallest of which is named H22 and measures just 2,632 square metres.
Visit 22 bits of Belgium, completely surrounded by the Netherlands Baarle Nassau is a town of some 6,000 people in Noord Brabant which contains rather large chunks of Belgium. In fact there are 22 little bits of Belgium in the locality, the smallest of which is named H22 and measures just 2,632 square metres.
Go underground in Limburg The St Pietersburg caves in Limburg are not caves at all but mines – the result of 2,000 years of digging for marl – the mud stone used in building and agriculture. The digging, which began with the Romans, led to the creation of a labyrinth of 20,000 tunnels and passageways, many of which are covered in graffiti dating back centuries.The caves are also home to what the local tourist board says is the ‘largest and oldest underground Christmas market in Europe’. We cannot imagine there are any others….
Spend time in a village devoted to prisons In the depths of darkest Drenthe is the prison village of Veenhuizen which was developed in the early 19th century as a place where anti-social families, the jobless and the poor of Amsterdam were sent to be reformed.
Check out human and animal deformities Not for the fainthearted – the Vrolik Museum in the heart of the AMC medical centre in Amsterdam Zuidoost is devoted to pathological specimens – from jars containing club feet or Siamese twins to framed pieces of skin covered in tattoos.
Go as low as you can It is somewhat disconcerting to stand next to a lorry park not far from Rotterdam and imagine that you are nearly seven metres beneath the sea. The Zuidplas polder near Rotterdam is 6.76 below sea level, making it the lowest point in the Netherlands.
Have a drink in Sexbierum Okay, school boy humour we know, but Sexbierum must be one of the wackiest names for a Dutch village – perhaps even beating the charmingly named Muggenbeet (mosquito bite) in Overijssel. Unfortunately, the name of this Frisian village of under 2,000 souls does not derive from various vices but from a combination of the name of the pope Sixtus II and the Old Frisian word for house or barra.
Read more: Nine weird things to do in the Netherlands - DutchNews.nl
